Reversing cats

Okay so I actually navigated to Medium of my own accord this time. Progress.

And here we are, facing another blank screen and blinking cursor. If writing is like exercising a muscle, I’ve gotten a bit flabby lately. But as winter arrives here in Scotland, staying inside and writing is likely the only exercise I’ll be doing for a while. So here goes nothing.

It’s not true that I haven’t written anything. It’s just that, since taking up a job in the public sector five years ago, my main output has been short, snappy social media posts, as well as static website content. Things, basically, where I’m purposely trying to not use my own voice, or add too much personality to an output, and certainly nothing with a byline. I’ve also pulled back on doing freelance work during this time — mainly, because the public sector is pretty well paid, and I didn’t need a side-hustle for extra pocket money.

And look, I still have a pretty impressive portfolio of work from my time in this sector. I will probably use this Medium platform to showcase some of my favourite projects I’ve worked on very soon.

But, I have missed this other kind of writing, either researching something fascinating for a client to publish on their website, or waxing lyrical about… well, lyrics usually, or other musical elements in an album review or general music rant. The kind of stuff that most of this Medium is populated with — but all written over five years ago.

I’m still in the public sector (at least for now), but I’m trying to find a better balance between my day job and other things I want to achieve. I will write more about those things in another post, but to tease them now — and mainly to hold myself to account that I’ve promised these — they include:

• Space sector communications work. Scotland seems to be the place to be for this burgeoning industry and there is lots to write about, especially from a non-technical perspective. It could be hugely beneficial for a variety of reasons, but there are human and environmental concerns to be balanced, too. I’m fascinated by it all
• A fun little music podcast I’ve been squirreling away on, which is really just an excuse for me to relive my student radio DJ days. I love playlisting songs, and I’ve come up with a premise that allows me to do this while talking about a wide range of pop tunes. This has mainly been for my own enjoyment so far, but this will soon be out in the world for others to listen to as well

So there we go. The cat is not fully out the bag, but it’s doing that awkward, butt-first reversal thing, and has gotten about halfway out so far, with the rest to follow soon.